The innovative Handbook offers 23 state-of-the-art peer-reviewed essays by leading international authorities summarizing evidence-based research on ancient and modern India. For example, Kautilya's Economics text published some 2000 years before Adam Smith is shown to include ideas in Marx's Labor Theory of Value, UN's Human Rights, optimization, etc. Hindu India topics include: beef eating, astrology, rituals, sacraments, pilgrimages, guilt-free pursuit of wealth and pleasures, caste system's huge costs and benefits in nurturing entrepreneurship, charity, Hindu Law, gender issues, overpopulation problem, yoga for business management and human capital growth. The scholarly essays provide a unique reference work for students, teachers, businessmen, India investors and general readers. Michael Szenberg, editor of The American Economist wrote: "Hindu Economics and Business Handbook is an engaging and informative survey of the economics of Hinduism. I highly recommend it. Jagdish Bhagwati of Columbia University said "... interesting collection ... will be widely read" Prof. Panchamukhi, Former Chairman, Indian Council for Social Science Research, New Delhi and editor of Indian Journal of Economics wrote: ".. systematically arranged into different themes and chapters ...Protection and prosperity, Importance of animals, Four-fold Objectives of Life, Hindu Social Corporate form, Ayurvedic Medicines, Impact of Rituals, (etc.)...perceptive articles on the recent thoughts on development and governance ...extremely valuable reading material...the most useful addition to the literature" Prof. Rishi Raj of CCNY, president of SIAA, wrote: "...many methods and strategies ..(by).. Hindu economists are desperately needed to help solve the present day world economic crisis." Narain Kataria, President of Indian American Intellectual Forum wrote: "...review of contrasting viewpoints... This unique reference work edited by Prof. Vinod belongs not only in every public library, but also in the home of everyone interested in India, including non-Hindus and international investors." List of distinguished authors includes the likes of: (1) former Harvard professor and president of Janata Party, Subramanian Swamy, (2) Suresh Tendulkar, Chair, Indian Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, (3) Shankar Abhyankar, founder of Aditya Pratishthan, (4) Anil Bokil, founder of ArthaKranti Pratishthan, (5) Prof. R. Vaidyanathan, IIM Banglore, (6) Balbir Sihag of U. Mass. (7) M.G. Prasad of Stevens Tech. (8) M. V. Patwardhan former Fellow Institute of Bankers, London, (9) Gautam Naresh, formerly at the National Institute of Public Finance, (10) M. V. Nadkarni, founder of Journal of Social and Economic Development, (11) Prof. R. Kulkarni, IIT Bombay, (12) K. Kulkarni, editor of the Indian Journal of Economics and Business, (13) Prof. S. Kaushik, Pace University, NY, Founder of Women's College in India, (14) H. Mhaskar, von Neumann distinguished professor, Technical University, Munich, Germany, (15) Vasant Lad, founder of Ayurvedic Institute in Albuquerque, NM, (16) Yogi S. Vinod, founder MVRF, Pune, (17) S. Kalyanaraman, Director, Sarasvati Research Centre, Chennai, (18) M. and P. Joshi, founders of Gurukul Yoga Center, NJ, (19) Advocate S. Deshmukh, formerly at Citibank and president, Maharashtra Foundation, and (20) Advocate C. Vaidya, among others.
About the Author: Hrishikesh D. Vinod is a professor of Economics and director of the Institute for Ethics and Economic Policy at Fordham University, NY. He received his MA from the Delhi School of Economics and Ph. D. in Economics from Harvard University, has worked at Bell Laboratories for many years, and had been an expert witness in major anti-trust trials. He has published over a hundred articles in top journals in Economics-related fields including: Econometrica, Journal of Econometrics, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Management Science, American Economic Review, Review of Economics and Statistics, International Economic Review, Journal of Economic Literature, Journal of Business, Journal of Advertising Research, etc. He has edited special issues and refereed for many journals. In 1996, he was named a fellow of the Journal of Econometrics. Maharashtra Foundation honored him for outstanding social service in 1998. Vinod managed a worldwide anti-corruption project before it was fashionable to talk about it. Vinod co-edited volume 11 of the Handbook of Statistics with C. R. Rao, the famous statistician. In August 2005 he organized an international conference on entrepreneurship and human rights at the Lincoln Center campus of Fordham University. Vinod has coauthored a Marcel Dekker book on Regression methods and a Wiley monograph on Downside risk in stock market investing. His two recent books: Hands-on Intermediate Econometrics Using R and Hands on Matrix Algebra Using R were published by World Scientific. Vinod has edited a book entitled Advances in Social Science Research using R, which is published by Springer. He had organized an international conference on Hinduism and Economics in 2011 in New York, which was widely covered in the media.